Phases of Faith eBook

[Footnote 1: I afterwards learned that some of
those gentlemen esteemed boldness of thought “a
lust of the mind,” and as such, an immorality.
This enables them to persuade themselves that they
do not reject a “heretic” for a matter
of opinion, but for that which they have a
right to call “immoral”. What
immorality was imputed to me, I was not distinctly
informed.]

[Footnote 2: I really thought it needless to
quote proof that but few will be saved, Matth.
vii. 14. I know there is a class of Christians
who believe in Universal salvation, and there are others
who disbelieve eternal torment. They must not
be angry with me for refuting the doctrine of other
Christians, which they hold to be false.]

[Footnote 3: In this (second) edition, I have
added an entire chapter expressly on the subject.]

[Footnote 4: The same may probably be said of
all the apostles, and their whole generation.
If they had looked on the life of Jesus with the same
tender and human affection as modern Unitarians and
pious Romanists do, the church would have swarmed
with holy coats and other relics in the very
first age. The mother of Jesus and her little
establishment would at once have swelled into importance.
This certainly was not the case; which may make it
doubtful whether the other apostles dwelt at all more
on the human personality, of Jesus than Paul
did. Strikingly different as James is from Paul,
he is in this respect perfectly agreed with him.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE RELIGION OF THE LETTER RENOUNCED.

It has been stated that I had already begun to discern
that it was impossible with perfect honesty to defend
every tittle contained in the Bible. Most of
the points which give moral offence in the book of
Genesis I had been used to explain away by the doctrine
of Progress; yet every now and then it became hard
to deny that God is represented as giving an actual
sanction to that which we now call sinful.
Indeed, up and down the Scriptures very numerous texts
are scattered, which are notorious difficulties with
commentators. These I had habitually overruled
one by one: but again of late, since I had been
forced to act and talk less and think more, they began
to encompass me. But I was for a while too full
of other inquiries to follow up coherently any of
my doubts or perceptions, until my mind became at
length nailed down to the definite study of one well-known
passage.

This passage may be judged of extremely secondary
importance in itself, yet by its remoteness from all
properly spiritual and profound questions, it seemed
to afford to me the safest of arguments. The
genealogy with which the gospel of Matthew opens,
I had long known to be a stumbling-block to divines,
and I had never been satisfied with their explanations.
On reading it afresh, after long intermission, and